In the name of Belarusian nation-building: Children as national capital during the German occupation of Belarus (1941–1944)

Abstract

The model of an ethnically homogeneous nation-state propagated from the mid-nineteenth century onwards was accompanied throughout Europe by the “discovery” by nation-states of their children as a national and political resource. Using children for the nationalist cause was a widespread phenomenon. Advocates of an independent Belarusian state were no exception in this respect. Under German occupation they saw an opportunity for their dream of an independent Belarusian nation-state to be fulfilled, a dream that rested on children as the repositories of values and at the same time the guarantors of national cohesion. The creation of a linguistically homogeneous national community was the first and crucial stage on the path to a nation-state. Children were to be molded into a loyal national community through education and a shared mother tongue. The article deals with a form of cooperation with the occupiers that was designed to harness children and youth as national capital and to raise them as members of a loyal national community.